ANR Short Squeeze Straddle

[EricSimpson1]

Bought the ANR Oct 8 straddle for 1.63. I'm going to hold until next Thursday (1/5 the time to expiration including weekends). If it's down 15% or up 50% any time until then, I'll exit early. IV not bad.

[trhanson]

You seem to have a good knack for this. I'm going to go along for the ride.

[EricSimpson1]

Alright good luck to both of us. And allocate very small.

[trhanson]

I'm just trying to pick up 5 contracts from a very small account that I do some speculating on. No worries :-)

Haven't gotten filled yet, but ask is at 1.64.

Just got filled.

When you set yours up, do you set up stops at 15% and limits at 50% ahead of time, or do you just monitor it?

Edited September 13, 2012 by trhanson

[Thaze]

If you don't mind me asking, just out of curiosity, how do you find these trades Eric? I find a few every once in a while, but you seem to come up with 10x as many as I do. Any special guidelines you look for when entering these trades or are they just based on gut feelings?

[EricSimpson1]

I'm just monitoring it, but that's just what works for me. Those percentages are guidelines and I adjusted the exit points for the general strategy yesterday. But I do recommend setting at least a stop for the 15% loss if you have any concerns. Also, these are still speculative plays. Even though I've made some pretty good calls on the trades I've posted so far, I would be surprised if it was 50% accurate in the long run. Most of the trades I expect to be small losses or small gains, and then some occasional big gains. I'm also not going to do these trades when the VIX spikes above 25

[EricSimpson1]

If you don't mind me asking, just out of curiosity, how do you find these trades Eric? I find a few every once in a while, but you seem to come up with 10x as many as I do. Any special guidelines you look for when entering these trades or are they just based on gut feelings?

I use finviz to screen candidates. Look for Optionable stocks with a most recently reported short float of about 15% or higher. Check which ones are up a lot( like 5% or more) in the past few days on high volume. Check news headlines to figure out why the stock is up. Check if options are liquid. Check if IV is below 30-day HV or near it's 52-week low. Still a crapshoot, but not as much as doing straddles on random stocks. Still trying to improve the entry and exit points.

And maybe 20% of it is gut feeling.

Edited September 13, 2012 by EricSimpson1

[Thaze]

I really appreciate the help, had no idea about finviz. That should help quite a bit in the overall screening process as the majority of the trades I was playing were found manually searching and based on my gut.

Edited September 13, 2012 by Thaze

[Guest listolyman]

I like the chart pattern and the volume on this one. I'm entering tomorrow.

[Dawajmeister]

Another great call.. nice 12% profit

[EricSimpson1]

I probably need to shorten my holding time more for these trades. Out at 1.41. 15% loss after commissions.